Geschnetzeltes (Creamy German Hunter’s Sauce)

Written on 26 March, 2013

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Geschnetzeltes (prounounced geh-shnet-sel-tess), German for “sliced meat”, is a sauce with pork or veal, mushrooms and cream that is popular throughout Germany and Switzerland, some versions named Züricher Geschnetzeltes. Traditionally served with Spätzle, egg noodles, or even boiled potatoes, it is a thoroughly delicious comfort food dish. Ideal for the busy cook, it only takes about 30 minutes to make.

Let’s get started!

You’ll need about a pound of lean pork.

Cut the pork into thin strips.

Heat the oil in a stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is heated, add the pork, being careful not to overcrowd, and brown it on all sides.

Browning the pork will ensure a rich flavor in the finished sauce. Transfer the pork to a plate and set aside.

Dice the onion.

Add the onion to the skillet, adding more oil if necessary, and saute until translucent and beginning to brown, about 5-7 minutes.

Get the mushrooms.

Thinly slice the mushrooms.

Add the mushrooms to the skillet with the onions and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the onion/mushroom mixture to the pork and set aside.

Melt the butter in the skillet.

Add the flour and whisk until smooth.

Continue to whisk constantly until the mixture is a rich caramel brown.

Add the milk and cream and whisk until smooth and thickened, then add the paprika.

Add the beef bouillon and whisk until combined.

Return the pork/onion/mushroom mixture to the sauce, bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve immediately with Homemade German Spätzle or with hot egg noodles cooked according to package instructions, and with a fresh green salad.

Heat the oil in a stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat and brown the pork on all sides. Transfer the pork to a plate and set aside.

Add the onions to the skillet, adding more oil if necessary, and saute until translucent and beginning to brown, about 5-7 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the onion mushroom mixture to pork and set aside.

Melt the butter in the skillet and whisk in the flour, continuing to whisk until the mixture is a rich caramel brown. Add the milk and heavy cream, whisking continually, until the mixture is smooth and thickened.

Add the paprika and crumble in the beef bouillon and whisk until smooth.

Return the meat mixture to the sauce and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add more milk if the sauce is too thick, or add a flour slurry to thicken.

Serve immediately with hot spaetzle or egg noodles and a fresh green salad.

Thanks, Christina! Oooooh yes, these are German mushrooms at their best :) Another popular mushroom dish you’d find in Germany, and a personal favorite, is this Steak with Creamy Chanterelle Sauce. SO good! Chanterelles, called “Pfifferlinge”, are super popular in there. Thanks so much for visiting, Christina!

This is the extended family favorite right now! I am getting asked for your blog! I love this and look forward to trying even more dishes of yours.

I also love your polenta lasagna. If I had more time, my goal would be to make everything on your site right down the list! What excellent recipes. I appreciate the visuals you include so that I can ensure that stages look right.

Melissa, thank you so much for your kind words – I really appreciate them. I’m flattered that several members of your family have expressed an interest in my blog – I hope they join us and a friendly welcome to them all! We really love these pork chops, too. The gravy is my favorite part and I often double up on it :) I’m also happy that you made the polenta lasagna! It’s really quite simple to make but it looks impressive and tastes fabulous. I hope you continue to enjoy the recipes you try and welcome your feedback anytime! Best, Kimberly

when I was a young boy meine mama und ohma would kick alles der kinder oust von der kuche and make real one bite and you have heart disease german food dahnke for bringing those memories back as my parents grandparents und kleine schwester have since past

Hi Samantha, the bouillon cube is very concentrated and eliminates the need to add a cup of stock. If you substitute a cup of stock for the cream or milk you won’t a very creamy sauce. That’s the downside.

Oh my gosh… I love this… my husband loves this… my kids it’s hard to tell, but they are 4 so who really cares. I don’t like the texture of mushrooms, so I halved the amount and it was still fabulous. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. My heritage is Czech, so I like to find awesome eastern European recipes and pretend their Czech… lol!

A few weeks ago my fiancé bought some porkchops on sale at the store. When she unpackaged them she found that they had buried a very oddly shaped/cut pieces at the bottom. Discouraged, she was about to throw them out saying they wouldn’t cook up right. Then I remembered this recipe. With it, I turned the butchers scraps that were destined for the trash into a meal fit for a king. Thanks again, Daring Gourmet!

Fixed this tonight for my German-born father-in-law. Didn’t have equipment to make spätzle, so just served over wide egg noodles. It was fabulous, with everyone having seconds. Only change I made to the recipe: I had 1-1/2 lbs pork on hand so used that amount, instead of 1 lb pork as the recipe calls for. It was not too much meat for the quantity of sauce. A big hit for this German-born and German-heritage family!

Hi Celeste! Yes, it’s basically the same thing. You can make creamy or clear brown gravy mushroom sauces for Jägerschnitzel, both equally popular. I’m actually going to be posting my recipe for Jägerschnitzel in the near future but probably won’t be before your friend’s birthday. You’ll be good to go though making a mushroom gravy as described in this recipe.

Hi Kimberly, I am German, I grew up in Landstuhl (Rheinland-Pfalz or in English the Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany, which is close to Ramstein Air Base and Kaiserslautern (1. FCK Soccer Club, which has been very disappointing in the past years). My mother was also from Swabia and to be exact, she grew up near Schwaebisch-Hall and my father in Landstuhl. I just want to give you a tip on your Schnitzel with Hunter-style grave and it is also great to use for your Geschnetzteltes recipe. I use the drippings from the meat, add small cubes of bacon and the rest is just about the same as you have in your recipe. I have to say, since I have grown up in a very large or lets say the largest American Military Community outside of the United States, the American bacon is much greasier than the German bacon is. You may want to brown it separately and pour out some of the grease before adding it to the pan of drippings. Let it brown some more and then add the rest of your ingredients. I think you and your admirers/followers will love this little but great change of taste.

Hi Doris…AFRC in Garmisch Partenkirchen by any chance? Thats where all my extended “framily” lived and worked. My Uncle was a helicopter pilot there in the ’50s shuttling the brass in for skiing etc. My husband and the rest were there from the late ’70s and some still live there. If that is where you were, “Hi” from our GAPer framily!

Hi Kimberly! What a greaat idea! I am cooking for a very large group-a memorial. Many people lived in Bavaria for at least part of their lives. I wanted to to jaegerschnitzel since it is such a favorite but too difficult for a group. This is perfect! Question: Do you think there would be any benefit in coating the pork pieces like for schnitzel? Oh and for your bacon comment…I’m sauteing with some rendered bacon fat for the extra piggyness! :) Thanks so much for your awesome site!

Hi Christine, what a wonderful memorial! Yes, this is a great dish for a crowd because it can be made in advance and reheated. No, I wouldn’t recommend coating the pieces of pork for two reasons: One, frying/browning the pork is key to the flavor of the sauce and two, the breading would just get soggy and probably fall off in the sauce anyway. Happy cooking and I hope the memorial will be as special as it sounds.

Looking for inspiration and came across this wonderful sounding recipe for Geschnetzeltes wow I am salivating already cant make it today but off the the Pork Butcher in the morning at first light Kimberly and Thanks

This recipe looks amazing!! I’m going to try it for sure! When you say heavy cream?…what percentage is the cream you use? I’m also going to make sweet and sour red cabbage salad (served hot) to eat along side … It will be a perfect match for your recipes.

Kimberly, we have a very close friend from Germany and over the years we’ve enjoyed many Swabian dishes. I made the pork schnitzel recipe of yours and this sauce. It was delicious!! She and her husband kept saying how much it reminded them of her Mom’s cooking. Also made buttered noodles with parsley and fresh steamed green beans with the bread crumbs browned in butter. Our friend is going through chemo so she has enough left over for tomorrow’s dinner when she gets home from the hospital. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!!

Hi Laurel, most of the flavor of this dish comes from the process of sauteing, caramelizing and making the roux with the flour – all steps that will be missed in the slow cooker. If you’re going to employ a slow cooker for this I’d recommend waiting until Step 5 and transferring everything over at that point to slow cook on LOW for maybe 3-4 hours. But for this particular dish I recommend sticking with the stovetop.

Thank you for this recipe! Made it tonight for Reformation Day celebration and everyone loved it. I probably used more butter than you suggested (and that SURELY didn’t hurt :-) ) We went with the egg noodles… cooked the pork, mush and onions in cast iron and it came out fantastic. This one is going in the rotation. Next time we’ll have time to go with the proper spaetzle!

I made this the other night. Everything was coming along perfectly until the part where I added the bullion cubes. The cubes weren’t breaking up, and combining with the sauce, so I continued whisking. Unfortunately, I whisked so long that my sauce began to separate, and the bullion cubes still weren’t completely dissolved. I went ahead and added the pork/onions/mushrooms back to the sauce, but it was a mess. We ended up eating it. It didn’t taste terrible, but I’m sure it would have been better if the sauce had stayed together. Long story short: I am going to make this again, but I am going to crush the bullion cubes before I add them to the sauce. Otherwise, great recipe!

Hi Sean, sorry about the ordeal you had with the cubes – that’s unusual for them not to have dissolved, it’s sounds like they were really hard! Yes, either crush them or you can also find powdered bouillon that you can scoop. Do give it another shot, this is such good comfort food!

Wow! This was just great. I had this 40 years ago in Basel as a starving, back-packing American tourist. I remember how great it was (probably with veal, while I used pork) and I used noodles rather than rosti or spaetzle.

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Unless otherwise stated, all images, content and recipes are original and are the sole property of Kimberly Killebrew, daringgourmet.com. No photographs or other content may be used without prior written consent.